Dear Friends,

As the new year approaches, we are reminded that this season brings “Tekuma," rebirth, and recovery. It also highlights something even more enduring: our remarkable ability to heal.

At Soroka Medical Center, healing has always extended beyond medicine. It means helping people rebuild their lives after illness, injury, and loss.

Today, as Israel continues to navigate the impact of war and trauma, this mission has never been more important. While many of the wounds are visible, countless others are not. The emotional and psychological toll on children, families, first responders, healthcare professionals, and the community will be felt for years to come.

This is why Soroka is making one of the most significant investments in its history, a world-class Mental Health Center designed to meet the growing needs for comprehensive, trauma-informed care. This center of excellence will bring together leading experts in psychiatry, psychology, PTSD treatment, child and adolescent mental health, rehabilitation, and expressive therapies, including art and music into one healing space. More than a new building, it represents a long-term commitment to helping people recover with dignity, compassion, and hope.

You will read inspiring stories of resilience, courage, and healing that demonstrates how Soroka fulfills its foundational role as the medical heart of southern Israel.

None of these advances happen without the extraordinary generosity of friends like you. Your partnership makes it possible for Soroka not only to respond to today’s challenges, but to build a stronger, healthier future for generations to come.

We send you our blessing for a happy New Year filled with good health and abundance. Thank you for standing with us and for believing, as we do, that healing means caring for the whole person: body, mind, and spirit.

With deep gratitude and resolve,

People often ask why I am so passionate about supporting Soroka. The answer is simple: my life and Soroka's story have been intertwined for decades.

I was raised by parents whose lives were forever shaped by the Holocaust. My father, a proud Zionist, immigrated to Israel before the establishment of the State and fought in Israel's War of Independence. My mother survived Auschwitz, where most of her family was murdered. Although she rarely spoke about her experiences, the emotional scars remained throughout her life. Watching both of my parents live with the invisible wounds of trauma taught me that healing is not only physical.

Serving in the IDF was my way of honoring my parents and the generations who dreamed of a Jewish homeland. During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, I was wounded in combat and brought to Soroka. At one of the most difficult moments of my life, Soroka's physicians and nurses cared for me with extraordinary compassion and skill. I never forgot what they did for me.

About fifteen years ago, my dear friend Mindy Gale, a longstanding board member of American Friends of Soroka Medical Center, invited me to one of the organization's early events. Listening to the stories of physicians, researchers, patients, and families, I realized Soroka had become far more than the hospital where I recovered. It has become one of Israel's leading centers of medical excellence, innovation, and hope. I knew I wanted to be part of its future.

Today, Soroka provides care for over 1 million people across southern Israel, advancing groundbreaking research while delivering world-class care close to home. My parents' experiences also taught me the importance of mental health, long before post-traumatic stress was widely understood.

That is why I support Soroka, because it cared for me when I needed it most, because it gives hope to families every day, and because every medical breakthrough begins with people who believe tomorrow can be better than today. For me, supporting Soroka is more than philanthropy, it is gratitude, remembrance, and my way of giving back to the hospital that helped give me my future.

The stories presented in this newsletter share a common thread.

Whether it is a wounded soldier learning to walk again, a patient finding hope after trauma, or a caregiver receiving support during unimaginable circumstances, healing is about more than physical recovery. It is about helping people rebuild their lives.

Today, the need for that healing is greater than ever. The residents of southern Israel have endured years of conflict, uncertainty, and loss. Since October 7, thousands of families across the Negev have faced trauma that will not disappear when the headlines fade. Children, parents, soldiers, first responders, healthcare professionals, and the community at large, are all carrying invisible wounds that require specialized care and long-term support.

Soroka Medical Center is building a new state-of-the-art Mental Health Center, a transformative facility that will redefine care for over 1 million residents in southern Israel.

For the first time, people across the Negev will have access to comprehensive, specialized care close to home. No family should have to travel hours to find the care they need. No child should have to wait for critical support. And no one facing trauma should have to face it alone simply because help is too far away.

The center will bring together the full spectrum of mental health services under one roof and will provide outpatient and inpatient psychiatric care, crisis intervention services, family counseling, trauma treatment, and innovative therapeutic programs for people of all ages.

Dedicated spaces will be created specifically for adults struggling with depression, anxiety, PTSD, grief, and other mental health challenges. Individual therapy rooms, group treatment spaces, family counseling areas, and calming therapeutic environments will allow patients to receive care in settings designed to promote dignity, privacy, and recovery.

Children and adolescents will have access to specialized mental health services tailored to their unique needs. The center will feature child-friendly therapy rooms and innovative play-based treatment spaces where young people can express emotions, process trauma, and develop healthy coping skills through age-appropriate activities. Families will be able to participate directly in the healing process through dedicated therapy and support programs close to home.

One of the most important additions will be the Early Childhood Mental Health Center, which will provide multidisciplinary evaluation and treatment for infants and young children during the most critical stages of emotional and cognitive development. Psychologists, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, and other specialists will work together to identify challenges early and provide interventions that can change a child's life.

The new center will also include a dedicated Crisis Intervention and Emergency Psychiatry Unit, ensuring immediate access to professional support for individuals and families experiencing acute psychological distress. In moments of crisis, timely intervention can make all the difference, helping prevent long-term suffering and creating a pathway toward recovery.

Beyond traditional clinical care, the center is being designed as a place of healing. Therapeutic gardens and restorative outdoor spaces will offer patients opportunities for reflection, emotional regulation, and recovery in a peaceful environment that supports resilience and well-being.

The new Mental Health Center represents far more than a building. It is a promise to the people of southern Israel that healing, resilience, and hope will always be within reach. It is an investment in children, families, caregivers, soldiers, and entire communities whose lives have been forever changed by trauma.

We are looking forward to having you join us on November 17, 2026 at The Plaza Hotel, NYC for the American Friends of Soroka Medical Center annual Gala.

Together, we will honor Bruce Pearl, legendary basketball coach, and passionate advocate for Israel. A board member of the U.S. Israel Education Association, Bruce has become one of America's leading public voices in support of Israel and the Jewish people. Following a historic coaching career that included leading Auburn University to multiple Final Four appearances, he now serves as a college basketball analyst for CBS Sports and TNT.

The keynote address will feature Noa Tishby, a two-time New York Times bestselling author and Israel’s former Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and Delegitimization. Tishby has been a leader in pro-Israel activism for over a decade, co-founding and initiating several organizations and projects, including Act for Israel, Reality Israel and most recently Noa founded and serves as CEO of Eighteen: an institute to combat antisemitism and inspire Jewish pride.

Prof. Shlomi Codish, Director General of Soroka Medical Center, will provide an update and share personal insights on the progress of Soroka’s recovery. Prof. Codish has led Soroka since 2018, guiding the hospital through some of the most challenging chapters of Soroka’s nearly 70 year history, from the COVID-19 pandemic and the unprecedented mass-casualty response of October 7, 2023, to the direct missile strike on the hospital on June 19, 2025, and extensive recovery and rebuilding efforts currently underway.

Whether you are able to join us in New York or support our mission from wherever you call home, your partnership helps ensure that Soroka can continue providing lifesaving care, advancing mental health services, and rebuilding hope for more than one million people across southern Israel.

On October 7, 2023, Dr. Ellay Hogeg Golan faced an impossible choice.

Trapped inside her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza with her husband Ariel, their 18-month-old daughter Yael, and their dog, the family fought for survival as terrorists attacked their community.

After hours of hiding in their safe room, their home was set on fire.

"We had two choices," she recalls. "Stay where we were and suffocate or run through the flames."

They ran.

The family suffered devastating injuries. Dr. Golan sustained severe burns over much of her body and was placed in a medically induced coma for more than 50 days. Ariel and Yael were also critically injured.

Before October 7, Dr. Golan was a medical student at Ben-Gurion University completing her clinical training at Soroka Medical Center. Overnight, the future physician became the patient fighting for her own life.

When she regained consciousness, she had to relearn how to walk, eat, drink, and perform everyday tasks. Alongside the physical rehabilitation came the emotional challenge of processing the trauma her family had endured and the loss of so many friends and neighbors.

As her strength returned, so did her determination to become the kind of physician who had cared for her. Inspired by the compassion of Soroka's doctors, nurses, therapists, and caregivers, she completed her medical training and, in September 2025, returned to Soroka to begin her residency in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine.

Her return came at another difficult moment in Soroka's history. Just months earlier, the hospital had sustained unprecedented damage when an Iranian ballistic missile struck the campus, severely impacting critical surgical and intensive care facilities. Like so many of its patients, Soroka itself was recovering while continuing to provide lifesaving care.

Today, Dr. Golan cares for patients with a perspective few physicians will ever know. She understands the uncertainty of lying in a hospital bed, the long road of rehabilitation, and the emotional strength it takes to begin again.

She and Ariel are now raising two children, including their son Iftach, who was born after the attack, a symbol of hope and renewal for their family and for all of Am Israel.

I am a social worker, a wife and mother of two, and a resident of Kibbutz Ruhama in Israel's Gaza border region. For the past eight years, I have worked at Soroka Medical Center, where I lead the psychosocial team in the Rehabilitation Department.

Every day, I see that healing is about far more than recovering from a physical injury. Our role is to help patients and families rebuild their lives after trauma, illness, and loss by providing the emotional support they need to move forward.

Since October 7, that need has become greater than ever.

One young officer I worked with was critically injured when an anti-tank missile struck his unit. Although doctors were able to save his legs, he was left with severe disabilities and reliant on a wheelchair.

When we first met, he was overwhelmed by depression, anxiety, and the loss of the future he had imagined. Through months of counseling and support, something began to change. His confidence returned. He found hope again and slowly started believing that his life could still be meaningful.

During rehabilitation, he met a young woman who became his partner. Months later, they were married, and I had the privilege of attending their wedding.

That day reminded me that recovery is about so much more than physical healing. It is about rediscovering purpose, connection, and hope.

At Soroka, mental health care is not separate from rehabilitation, it is an essential part of it. Every day, we help patients navigate trauma, rebuild resilience, and believe in a future that once seemed impossible. That is what true healing looks like.

When people think about hospitals during times of crisis, they picture the patients.

What they often don't see are the caregivers standing beside them.

Since October 7, 2023, Soroka's doctors, nurses, therapists, social workers, and support staff have cared for thousands of wounded patients while living through the same trauma themselves. Many are residents of southern Israel. Some came to work while worrying about loved ones under attack or serving in the military. On October 7, countless staff members arrived at the hospital without being called, determined to help save lives.

Day after day, they witnessed unimaginable suffering and loss.

And yet they kept showing up.

Long before October 7, Soroka recognized that caring for caregivers is essential to caring for patients. Through the Staff Resilience Unit, Soroka has built a culture where seeking emotional support is a sign of strength, not weakness.

That foundation became invaluable after the attacks. Through peer support, professional counseling, emotional check-ins, and ongoing outreach, they reminded every employee of one simple truth: You are not alone.

When an Iranian ballistic missile struck Soroka on June 19, 2025, damaging the hospital itself, those same support systems were activated once again. Teams reached out to employees, colleagues checked on one another, and leadership placed emotional well-being alongside operational recovery.

What makes Soroka extraordinary is not that its people never experience fear or heartbreak. It is that they face those challenges together.

Mental health support is not a luxury. It is an essential part of sustaining the people who dedicate their lives to healing others.

At Soroka, caring for the caregivers is how we ensure that hope, compassion, and healing remain available to every patient who walks through our doors.

On October 7, 2023, I was called up for reserve duty with the Alexandroni Brigade. Like so many others, I left behind my family and civilian life to help defend Israel during one of the darkest moments in our country's history.

When I was injured in Gaza, I thought my greatest challenge would be learning to walk again.

I was wrong.

When I arrived at Soroka Medical Center's Rehabilitation Department, I was in a wheelchair. On my first morning, someone from the rehabilitation team woke me up and said, "Come on. Today we start walking."

I looked at her in disbelief. "I'm in a wheelchair," I replied.

She smiled and said, "Today, you take your first steps." Looking back, those first steps were never just about walking.Like so many soldiers and civilians after October 7, I was carrying wounds that couldn't be seen. Beyond my physical injuries, I was struggling with fear, uncertainty, and the loss of the life I had known. The physical recovery was difficult, but the emotional recovery was even harder.

The team at Soroka never saw me as a patient in a wheelchair. They saw me. The doctors, nurses, therapists, psychologists, and social workers believed in me long before I believed in myself. They helped me rebuild not only my strength, but also my confidence, purpose, and hope.

Three and a half months later, I walked out of Soroka on crutches

Today, I'm back to being a husband, a father, an entrepreneur, and an advocate for wounded IDF soldiers and their families.

The care I received didn't just help me take my first steps. It helped me believe my future was still waiting for me.

That is the power of mental health care. It helps people find hope when trauma has taken it away and reminds them that healing is possible,even after life's darkest moments.